Encore ESP

Ignore the rude people here. Welcome to the hobby! You’re in for an incredibly rewarding, albeit sometimes frustrating experience. As others have said - you need a much finer grind. I had a burr grinder at home that was supposedly all purpose, but even at its “espresso” setting it was way too coarse

I just did a ton of research as a beginner and I went with the Breville Bambino Plus ($400) and the Baratza Encore ESP ($200). I’m having a blast and making some of the best coffee I’ve ever had. Another option is indeed the Barista Express. I didn’t go with this one because I wanted a better grinde

With the Encore+ M2 burr upgrade (same one the Baratza ESP has) I get pretty consistent espresso grind results to the point that I can't see myself getting a separate grinder any time soon, but it takes a LOT of back and forth and dialing in than I'm guessing a proper espresso grinder does. Don't ne

The Breville grinder in the original post is more or less the same grinder as the Baratza encore ESP. The burrs in both the grinders are the Baratza M2 burrs and should provide a similar experience, while the Breville one has a nicer metal body. As it can almost always be had on sale (or dirt cheap

If considering the Encore ESP, I'd also look at the Encore ESP Pro: the latter is a nice enhancement over the original ESP, with significantly tighter grind precision in the espresso range (a pretty amazing 2.2-micron display step, essentially near-stepless in practice--in comparison, the original E

Im so glad with that grinder, coming from a Baratza Encore ESP, I know now what consistency is lol. I’m going to try Turkish grind with it soon, as I bought Turkish/Greek style roasted beans from Greece. It should be able to handle it according to Eureka.

The Encore ESP Pro is a nice enhanced version of the Encore ESP. Note: the flavor profile is the same--the ESP Pro uses the same burrs as the ESP, and one should expect the same flavor between the 2 grinders, as a general matter. The biggest value is the ESP Pro's 2.2-micron display grind steps, as

Since you're looking for quality without the tinkering the Breville bambino plus paired with a baratza encore ESP grinder is a fantastic way go go. The bambino plus plus heats up almost instantly and even has an auto froth feature for your lattes which takes the stress out of learning manual steam w

I had a similar issue with grind settings and I found the burr carrier was broken. I bought another one from Baratza replaced it and later found that the grind settings were a then bit high, 17 for medium and 19 for dark roasts. It seemed also that between the clicks, there was too much variance bet

Honestly, especially since you want milk drinks, the Breville Plus is a great choice. Plenty of people start with that and never feel any need to upgrade. I had one paired with a Baratza Encore ESP and the pair were easy, reliable, and consistently tasted great. The auto steam on the B+ works well,